Soaring Across Red Skies
by Saint Miroku
Summary: With the unprecedented shift in Demon Realm life enacted by Yusuke, the Spirit Realm is left scrambling to try and adapt to this new world. In the wake of all this, Koenma sends Botan and his recently hired Demon Realm expert Jin to investigate claims that there may be a nascent rebellion against King Enki. The two then unrealistically bond as they embark on their mission.


Botan sighed deeply. With all of the recent changes in the Demon Realm, she was feeling very overwhelmed. While the idea of a stable and (relatively) peaceful Demon Realm was certainly something she supported, she remained skeptical as to whether or not this change would actually last. For as much faith as she had in Yusuke's spirit and charisma, the Demon Realm had been a divided and troubled place for her entire life, and Botan couldn't help but think that the rule of the new king would be short lived. Regardless of what may happen in the future, she knew that in the present, this big shakeup had come to dominate the goings on of the Spirit Realm, and Koenma's Palace was busier than she had ever seen. All around her people were scrambling around with boxes full of charts, graphs, and all sorts of miscellaneous paperwork, all of which was necessary to establish the many new procedures and protocols that would be necessary with the barriers to the Demon Realm gone. Thankfully, Botan didn't have to partake in any of that madness for now, as she had been called up by Koenma to discuss something important. What that important matter was, she had no clue, but she hoped that it didn't involve another tournament. As she slowly opened the door to her spiritual liege's office, she saw him look up from a massive stack of paperwork.

"Ah Botan, there you are, I was afraid that you'd been absorbed by all that commotion outside. It hasn't been this busy around here in forty eight years." he said, looking somewhat tired from all the paperwork.

"Come come now, surely you must have some faith in me by now?" Botan asked in return.

Koenma chuckled softly, "I guess you're right, if anyone could get through all that, it'd be you. Anyway, I have a special mission for you."

"What is it?"

Koenma paused briefly before continuing, "As you know, things are very uncertain in the Demon Realm right now. Yusuke's gamble to bring some semblance of stability to that dark place seems to have been successful for the time being and most of the realm's residents support this change, some demons are simply never going to accept this weird, fighting based pseudo-democratic system with a king that our former Spirit Detective put into place." Koenma paused again as if to catch his breath after that lengthy description of the Demon Realm's current government. "We've received word that there's a group of discontent demons near the edge of the Demon Realm who seem to be plotting against the current regime, and I'd like you to go and scout the region out so we can pass any information we find onto King Enki's men."

"That sounds pretty simple, except for the fact that I've only been to the Demon Realm once and that was during our little boondoggle during the tournament..." Botan replied.

"Well I have good news! Since we're going to be involved in the goings on of the Demon Realm for the foreseeable future, I've taken the liberty of hiring a native of that realm to help out in all of our future operations there."

Koenma then turned to the side and motioned towards someone that was outside of Botan's field of vision. When the figure stepped into her field of view, Botan instantly recognized the tall red haired demon as Jin, a contestant from both of the recent demon tournaments and a good friend of Yusuke.

Koenma looked back at Botan, "Botan I'm sure you remember Jin. Jin, this is Botan, she'll be accompanying you on your mission."

"Nice to meet ya." Jin said in his usual, easy going manner.

"Likewise..." Botan said somewhat shyly as she looked him over. She never really got a good look at him in either of the tournaments (considering that one had Kuwabara resting on her thighs as she treated his wounds, and the other had her trying to lay low), but now that she saw him up close, she couldn't help but blush a little at his attractive face... or his well toned body which was barely concealed by his signature attire.

Koenma spoke again, snapping her back to reality, "Jin has already been fully briefed, and he knows exactly where to go, so just follow him. Oh and one more thing, please try to come back in one piece."

"Understood." the two said in unison.

With that, the pair left Koenma's office and began to make their way through the absolute anarchy that was the palace hallway.

"So, how did you end up here?" Botan asked, seeking to lighten up the mood somewhat as the two fought their way through the commotion.

"I honestly had nothing better to do and the pay sounded good. That, and this sounds like a great way to keep my skills sharp for the next tournament." Jin replied.

"You're planning on competing every time it comes up then?"

"Of course, I've been a fighter my whole life, and a tournament that big only brings out the best in me, Yusuke's a genius!"

Botan couldn't help but laugh at Yusuke being called a genius, though she certainly understood the sentiment (he had managed to bring peace and stability to the Demon Realm after all), "I guess you're right."

When the two finally managed to escape the bustling palace, Jin took flight using his wind powers and Botan followed close behind using her spirit oar. The flew for a short time until they encountered a few S.D.F. Troopers on a cliff, who promptly opened a portal to the Demon Realm which the two promptly entered. After their brief time in the warp, the pair found themselves in the Demon Realm. Botan felt the warm air of this foreign world brush against her face as she gazed out across the vast landscape that stood before her. While she had often thought of the Demon Realm as a hellish sort of place, she found the sky's warm red glow to be strangely beautiful. Her sightseeing was brought to an abrupt end as Jin motioned her to land, and the two set down near a cave in the side of a mountain.

"This is the area where we think the rebels are hiding, this cave could have some sign of them, but I'll have to check it out on foot." Jin said, keeping his voice low just in case there were any hostile demons nearby.

"Right, be careful in ther-" Botan was suddenly interrupted by a man shouting from above them.

"So, the intruders are finally here! Took them long enough, but I guess expecting that fool Enki to do anything quickly is asking for too much!" the man yelled.

Botan and Jin turned their gave towards a higher section of the mountain and saw a large green demon starring down at them.

"Look we don't work for Enki, we were just running an errand for Lord Koe-" Botan said before being interrupted again.

"I'm not buying that for a second, cut 'em to pieces boys!"

With that command, nearly a dozen demons flooded out of the cave, forcing Jin back to where Botan stood. Seeing that a fight would be unavoidable, Botan summoned her steel baseball bat and stood back to back with Jin, ready to defend her self as best she could. As one of the demons charged at her, she swung hard with her bat, and was surprised to find that the foe went down with only that single hit, meaning that these demons were much weaker than they had feared. Perhaps they were planning to blow King Enki up with a bunch of hidden explosives or something equally subversive, since these demons weren't nearly strong enough to dare challenging the king of the Demon Realm. Botan swung at another of the weak demons, her bat making an audible metallic clang as it made contact with her opponent's skull.

She glanced over and saw that Jin was cleaving through multiple enemies at a time with his tornado fists, making short work of this so called rebellion. Enraged at the sight of his men falling so easily, the leader jumped down from his perch and immediately charged towards Botan. As soon as he was withing range, he swung at her with a large club, forcing her to use all of her strength to block his attack with her bat. This demon seemed to have much more mettle than his striplings, and it was all that Botan could do to try and keep him at bay. Thankfully, Jin had defeated all of the other attackers, allowing him to rush over to Botan's position and strike the leader with a swift blow from his tornado fists. With the main demon knocked back, the pair looked at each other before nodding and striking the beast in unison, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Well that was disappointing, I was hoping that someone shouting about how they were gonna take down the king would be at least a little bit strong, but these guys were nothing but a bunch of street punks." Jin said.

"Well I guess the threat was a bit overblown then, but hey, we made a good team didn't we?" Botan replied.

"Aye, you're right there, I wouldn't mind fighting beside ya again." Jin responded back, shooting Botan a warm smile as he did so.

"Yeah, well we'd better get out of here and head back to the portal before it closes on us."

Jin nodded in agreement and the two took flight once more. Once they returned to the Spirit Realm, they landed in front of Koenma's palace and faced each other.

"Well, I guess it's time we parted ways, tell Koenma that I want to keep this gig going would ya?" Jin said, somewhat sadly.

"Wait, there's something I'd like to ask you." Botan said, moving closer to the red haired demon.

"Hm?"

"Well, I was just wondering, would you like to meet up again sometime soon when we're not working?"

"What ya mean like a... a date?" Jin asked, now blushing somewhat.

"You could call it that I guess. So, would you be up for it?"

"Okay." he replied somewhat nervously, romance clearly not being his strong suit.

"Great! Oh and one more thing."

"Wha-" Jin's words were cut short as Botan suddenly moved forward and kissed him, leaving him in a state of shock until he gradually relaxed into it.

Botan broke from the kiss and said, "That was my way of thanking you for helping me fight off those wannabe revolutionaries in the Demon Realm. So, how does tomorrow evening sound?"

"Tha-That'd be fine." Jin said, still somewhat in shock that such a beautiful girl had unexpectedly kissed him like that.

"Great, I'll be here when you're ready." She said, turning around to head back into the palace.

As she walked away, she left a flabbergasted Jin behind her. She couldn't help but feel a small rush at how direct she had been, never in her wildest imagination did she ever think that things would've ended up this way. Things were still going to be crazy in the palace, but at least she'd have this to look forward to.


End file.
